In 1991, when Yes issued first the Union<\/i> album and then the YesYears<\/i> box set, one of the questions that inevitably came up for slightly obsessive fans such as yours truly was, \u201cwho is this Billy Sherwood guy and why is Chris Squire writing songs with him?\u201d\u00a0 Both \u201cThe More We Live — Let Go\u201d from Union<\/i> and \u201cLove Conquers All\u201d from YesYears<\/i> were co-credited to Yes\u2019s founding bassist\/harmony vocalist Squire and Sherwood, with the latter even featuring Sherwood singing and playing on the Yes-released version.<\/p>\n
The answer was, Sherwood was the 20-years-younger lead vocalist, bassist, producer and songwriter behind LA-area group World Trade, which had caught Squire\u2019s ear with its very 80s-Yes, arena-prog sound.\u00a0 As erstwhile Yes lead vocalist Jon Anderson ran off to form Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, and 80s Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin focused his energies on his 1989 solo disc Can\u2019t Look Away<\/i>, Squire considered the possibility of bringing Sherwood in to fill the lead vocal slot in Yes.\u00a0 Their collaboration developed quickly, but was derailed when Yes suddenly coalesced once again into the eight-man lineup that would issue Union<\/i> and YesYears.<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
That left Sherwood on the outside again, but his friendship with Squire remained and the pair never stopped working together.\u00a0 After the Union<\/i> tour, Squire formed a side project with Sherwood called the Chris Squire Experiment, featuring the pair sharing lead vocals, Squire on bass, Sherwood on guitar and Yes drummer Alan White backing them.\u00a0 The trio recorded from time to time and played various dates in the LA area, and by the time Yes\u2019s 1994 album Talk <\/i>came around, multi-instrumentalist Sherwood was invited to tour with the band as an additional guitarist\/keyboardist\/harmony vocalist.\u00a0 When the classic Yes lineup reformed in 1995-96, Sherwood was there again, mixing Keys To Ascension<\/i> and producing Keys To Ascension 2<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
When the latter album became caught up in a 1997 tug of war between band and label, and classic Yes keyboardist Wakeman exited yet again, Sherwood was finally invited to join Yes as part of a deal that moved Yes to a new label and redirected an entire album of songs that Squire and Sherwood had developed for a planned Chris Squire Experiment release to become the foundation for the Yes disc Open Your Eyes<\/i>.\u00a0 Sherwood would record and tour both OYE<\/i> and 1999\u2019s The Ladder<\/i> with Yes before exiting the band in 2000.<\/p>\n
All of which forms the necessary preface for this album, the ten-years-later result of the long-running Squire-Sherwood partnership.\u00a0 Sidestepping the foregone OYE<\/i> material entirely, the pair instead crafted a mostly new disc, augmented with their versions of \u201cThe More We Live \u2013 Let Go\u201d and \u201cLove Conquers All.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, though, the reality is that the history is probably more interesting than the music itself.\u00a0 Conspiracy<\/i> is a solid but unspectacular document of the duo\u2019s strengths \u2013 fabulous harmony vocals and very compatible melodic sensibilities \u2013 and weaknesses \u2013 bland lyrics and overly slick, indistinct arena-prog songs.\u00a0 In one respect this album offers a strong case for Squire\u2019s identification of Sherwood as a potential new frontman for the 1989 version of Yes; it sounds like nothing quite so much as a sequel to Yes\u2019s 1987 disc Big Generator<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Indeed, fans of the Rabin years will no doubt enjoy this disc, but for folks like me who both admire Sherwood\u2019s work with Yes in 1997-2000 and detest most of Big Generator<\/i>, it inspires decidedly mixed feelings.\u00a0 For all the talents of these two players, and their obvious enjoyment of playing together, there are only a few tracks of note here; the rest all blurs together in a continuous stream of sheeny, inorganic arena prog.<\/p>\n
The best of the new cuts here \u2013 the airy \u201cDays Of Wonder\u201d and the driving \u201cViolet Purple Rose\u201d \u2013 find Sherwood and Squire\u2019s voices intertwining beautifully over dramatic soundscapes.\u00a0 The latter track also features the strongest guitar work on the album courtesy of guest Steve Stevens (Bozzio Levin Stevens).\u00a0 Unfortunately, the worst moments on this disc sit side-by-side with these tracks, as Squire unsuccessfully tries out a rather Bryan Ferry-ish croon on \u201cLight In My Life\u201d and delivers a choppy, stilted reading of the appropriately titled \u201cNo Rhyme.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The main points of interest for a Yes fan are the two rerecorded tracks.\u00a0 \u201cThe More We Live \u2013 Let Go\u201d remains atmospheric and intriguing, though this version loses some of the swirling drama of the Union<\/i> version in favor of a more AOR-oriented mix.\u00a0 And \u201cLove Conquers All\u201d remains a bald ploy for commercial airplay that\u2019s both carefully crafted and utterly weightless.\u00a0 I would say about it what I\u2019d say about this entire album \u2013 it\u2019s solid enough if you care for that sort of thing.\u00a0 I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
The most widely available reissue of this disc includes a couple of bonus tracks, the epic-length title track from Sherwood\u2019s solo debut The Big Peace<\/i>, and the recording of \u201cComfortably Numb\u201d that Sherwood, Squire and White contributed to the Back Against The Wall<\/i> Pink Floyd tribute album.\u00a0 They\u2019re welcome additions filling out an album that ultimately feels like more of a historical footnote than anything else. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8546],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-41922","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-chris-squire-billy-sherwood","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41922"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}